Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Maps!

So, as I wait for the latest beta version of Elite: Dangerous to download I thought I'd do a quick blog about my recent writing escapades. For the last few attempts at a story I've followed a simple writing premise:

Get an idea

Write to buggery, off the top of my head

But I've had a new idea and without going into detail it's quite complex and needs a bit of planning. This time I need to think about how things fit together. Not just chapters and event but also places. Usually I just make up a load of places, there aren't that many and they aren't too far from each other, and it didn't really matter too much about how they related (maybe this is why the stories are all a bit meh?!). But this time I'd like to fit the places together. I need a map!

Maps are awesome! I loved making maps when I was a kid, burning the edges and staining the paper with old tea bags. A map makes a book all the more brilliant. It gives a little glimpse of what's to come. I can remember reading The Hobbit and looking at the map in the cover, what were all these places like? Following Frodo as he journeyed onwards towards the Lonely Mountain.

Now I just have to decide how to draw the map; Do it all in one go before I start writing and let it be part of the structure I hang the story on?

Fill in some of the main parts that I am sure of now and fill in the rest as I go?

Or build it completely as I go? I quite like this one, especially if I use little scraps of paper to make the map. It'll mean I can add and remove parts f the map easily and also move parts about if I have to later. I'm going to try and build a composite map and it will be MAGNIFICENT!

Um, sorry about that. But yeah, I'm quite excited.

About making a map.

I don't get out much.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of the map and maybe a little bit about the places shown.